Category Archives: Garden

Heirlooms

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This meal featured heirloom varieties of tomatoes and beans.  I steamed extra beans when cooking a previous meal, so the purple and green beauties were ready to add to the salad: arugula,  sunflower seeds, dill goat cheese, and homemade honey mustard dressing.

The tomatoes hide the pesto (also made in a big batch ahead of time) on the pasta, but it’s there.  With some of the prep work (snapping and steaming beans and making the pesto) done ahead of time, we created a delicious and elegant meal in no time at all — perfect for a busy weeknight!

Taking sides

I was unaware of the strict separation on my plate until I looked at this photo.

On the left: Green beans and Chinese red noodle beans (see this post for the beans before I snapped them into bite-sized pieces — 12 inches long!), steamed for 5-7 minutes, then tossed with seasoned rice vinegar and a touch of sesame oil.

On the right: Sauteed bell peppers (red, orange, and green), onions, corn, and edamame* with grilled summer squash served over brown rice.

*I’ve tried to grow edamame twice now, with little success, but my father-in-law shared some of his beautiful crop.  We steamed a big batch in the pods, then ate some straight out of the pod and shelled the rest for this dish.

Steamed potatoes

Round two of the Great Potato dig commenced on what may have been the hottest day of the year.  Our camera rested in air-conditioned comfort before I cruelly pressed it into service in the heat of the day.  It protested with a foggy lens.

Steamy!

Our little helpers were out playing and asked if we could put them to work.  Um, did you really just ask that?  Quick!  Put them to work before they change their minds!  They didn’t stay long, but we had fun.  Far too many kids (and adults) have no idea where food comes from — we’re happy to help remedy that 🙂

The coffee bean sack saga

The coffee bean sack saga started innocently enough.  Our friend Dani witnessed first hand our losing battle against the weeds in our commuter garden, and asked, “Have you ever thought about using cardboard or coffee sacks to keep weeds down in the paths?”

Why no, we had not, but it sounded like a wonderful idea.  I emailed a few local coffee roasting companies,  and received three invitations to stop by and pick up some coffee sacks.  Two of the three said to stop by anytime; the third (a much larger operation that shall remain nameless) asked me to let them know when I was coming.

Due to some weekend and evening work hours, I had last Tuesday off.  I started the day by running a bike errand in the vicinity of the coffee roasters.  I had not heard back from the third roaster with a specific time, but since I was right there, I decided to stop by anyway.  BAD IDEA.

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